A good walk: Hannah’s Meadow, Co Durham

Share via

Pass one of England’s last upland haymeadows, join the Pennine Way and out on to the moors to Goldsborough crag

There aren’t many proper old upland hay meadows left in England, but the one at Low Birk Hatt farm in Baldersdale is an absolute beauty. That’s thanks to Hannah Hauxwell, the lone woman who farmed these fields in an entirely traditional way until her retirement in 1988, and also to Durham Wildlife Trust which took them on, renamed them “Hannah’s Meadow”, and continued the good work.

We stepped into the sparse little exhibition in Hannah’s Barn below High Birk Hatt farmhouse, and then followed the Pennine Way beside the meadow — not yet cut, its sweet vernal grass and sedges full